Cyber Monday: 7 Top Books to Order Online for Lasting Gifts and Delightful Holiday Reading

Cyber Monday is a good time to buy books online. Yet, whether you buy online on Cyber Monday or at an independent bookstore on Christmas Eve, here are awesome memoirs and other nonfiction gift ideas. Buy a few for your own holiday reading. On my gift list, I also include gorgeous coffee table books. Amazon generally offers among the lowest book prices; however, for Cyber Monday and other special deals, check out cybermonday.com. Full disclosure: several books included in this slideshow of favorite reads were penned by friends or acquaintances of mine.

 

 

 

 

By: Susan Orlins
November 26, 2011
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Cyber Monday: Art of the Personal Essay
Source: Phillip Lopate
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Cyber Monday: Art of the Personal Essay

If I could have only one book for the rest of my life, it would be Phillip Lopate's The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present. The introduction alone is a must-read to fully grasp the art of the personal essay. Essays follow, each with a discussion by Lopate, considered by many to be today's foremost master of the craft.

Beginning with essays by Seneca and Plutarch—written some two thousand years ago that in some ways read as though they were written last week—the tome includes the writings of Sei Shonagun, a tenth century Japenese court lady with opinions on everything from unappealing children to how lovers should act. Lopate also provides essays by Montaigne, Charles Lamb, E.B. White, George Orwell, Virginia Woolf, James Baldwin and Joan Didion, to name just a few.

A must-read, must-own for writers. 

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